"Desirable" Immigrants

The British Crown desperately wanted to settle the Prairies. For John H. Archer, the Canadian Prairies “gave muscle and meat to the national skeleton. It gave practical foundation to the boast ‘from sea unto sea’… The business of prairie settlement articulated the whole economic system of Canada” (Archer, viii).

Though many British immigrants had limited skill in agriculture, “the British were the most numerous and desirable immigrants to Canada,” writes Erica Gagnon, and they “helped maintain a dominant white Anglo-Saxon presence in Canada” (npn). Many were, in fact, quite inept at farming: As George Shepherd observes of his experience on board the Empress of Ireland to Canada, “Apparently qualifications never entered the picture, for the majority of our fellow passengers had no farming experience” (Shepherd, 10). Most moved close to the city centres, paradoxically undermining Canada’s “homesteading” mission. Other desirable groups, such as Americans, Poles, Dutch, Germans, Finns, and Scandinavians, who had previous experience with Prairie climate and conditions and had “physical similarities to the Brits,” were more successful at Prairie agriculture.

Sources:
Erica Gagnon, Former Collections Researcher, Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21
John H. Archer in George Shepherd's West of Yesterday, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1966.